The Turn of the Screw

A bachelor in Harley Street hires a young parson’s daughter to look after his orphaned nephew and niece at his country house, on one condition: she must never bother him. At Bly she finds two beautiful, clever children, a kind housekeeper, and a mystery about why the boy has been sent home from school. Then a man she has never seen appears on top of a tower, staring at her, and the housekeeper recognizes her description as the master’s valet, who is dead. What follows is either a ghost story or the story of a mind under terrible strain, and James never says which. Readers have been weighing the evidence for well over a century.

What happens in The Turn of the Screw

On Christmas Eve, guests in an old house tell ghost stories. Douglas says he knows one involving two children and sends to London for a manuscript by his sister’s governess, dead for twenty years. He explains that she was a poor parson’s daughter of twenty, hired in Harley Street by a handsome bachelor to care for his orphaned nephew and niece at Bly, his country house, on one main condition: she must never trouble him. In her manuscript, the governess arrives at Bly in June and is delighted by eight-year-old Flora and the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. A letter says that Miles, barely ten, has been dismissed from school, without explanation, but the boy is so charming that she decides to do nothing. One evening she sees, or believes she sees, an unknown man on top of a tower, and later the same man at the dining-room window. From her description, Mrs. Grose recognizes Peter Quint, the master’s former valet, who is dead. Mrs. Grose sees nothing herself, and only the governess ever reports seeing such figures. By the lake, the governess reports a woman in black and becomes convinced that Flora saw her too. She decides it is her dead predecessor, Miss Jessel, and Mrs. Grose admits that Miss Jessel and Quint were ‘infamous’ and close to the children. The governess comes to believe the children secretly meet the dead pair. She meets the figure she knows as Quint on the stairs, and later finds Miles on the lawn after midnight; he says he went out so she would think him bad. In autumn Miles asks to go back to school and says he will bring his uncle down. She writes to the uncle. While Miles plays the piano for her, Flora slips away to the lake. There the governess cries that Miss Jessel is on the far bank, but Mrs. Grose sees nothing, and Flora denies seeing anything and turns against her. Mrs. Grose takes the feverish Flora to her uncle in London. Alone with Miles, the governess presses him to confess. He admits he took and burned her letter, and says he was sent away from school for saying things to a few people he liked. When she cries out at a face she sees at the window, Miles names Peter Quint, looks, and sees nothing. He cries out, she catches him, and his heart has stopped.

Where and when The Turn of the Screw happens

Chapter by chapter summary + why it matters

1. 1

   Prologue: Douglas and the Manuscript

   On Christmas Eve, guests at an old house trade ghost stories, and Douglas asks what two children would add if one child gives a tale ‘another turn of the screw.’ He sends to London for a manuscript by his sister’s governess, a woman ten years older than he who has been dead twenty years, and agrees that she had once been in love, though he says the story will not tell with whom. Before reading, he explains that a handsome bachelor in Harley Street hired her to care for his orphaned nephew and niece at Bly, on the condition that she never trouble him.

   Why it mattersThe story reaches readers through an unnamed guest who copied the manuscript that Douglas read aloud, so the governess can never be questioned directly. The hint of a hidden love gives readers a clue that the tale itself never explains.

2. 2

   The Man on the Tower

   The governess arrives at Bly in June, is enchanted by Flora, and quickly befriends Mrs. Grose, who cannot read. A letter from the headmaster says Miles cannot return to school, but when the boy arrives she finds him so lovely that she decides to say nothing to anyone. One evening, while imagining that her handsome employer might appear and approve of her work, she sees a man who is not her employer standing on one of the towers and staring at her.

   Why it mattersThe sighting comes at the very moment she is picturing a man’s face, which readers can take either as a sign that the figure is real or as a hint that her imagination is at work.

3. 3

   A Face at the Window

   The governess sees the same man looking in at the dining-room window and senses that he has come for someone else. She describes him to Mrs. Grose, who recognizes Peter Quint, the master’s valet, whom the master left at Bly with a free hand and who was later found dead one winter morning after an apparent fall on an icy slope. Mrs. Grose has seen nothing herself, but she believes the governess, who resolves to stand as a screen between the children and the figure. While Flora plays by the lake, the governess becomes aware of another figure across the water.

   Why it mattersMrs. Grose’s recognition of a man the governess never knew is the strongest support for reading the ghosts as real; readers who doubt them note that the governess’s larger fears about the children have no such confirmation.

4. 4

   Miss Jessel

   The governess tells Mrs. Grose that a woman in black, whom she takes to be her dead predecessor Miss Jessel, stood across the lake, and that Flora saw her but pretended not to. Mrs. Grose admits that Miss Jessel and Quint were both ‘infamous,’ that Quint was constantly with Miles for months, and that Miles once denied the time they spent together. Some days later, late at night, the governess meets what she takes to be Quint on the staircase and faces it without fear until it turns and goes down into the dark.

   Why it mattersThe governess builds her certainty that the children are corrupted from Flora’s silence and Mrs. Grose’s hints, and readers disagree about whether this is insight or the start of an obsession.

5. 5

   Night Watches

   The governess finds Flora hiding behind a window blind, and later glimpses a woman in an attitude of grief on the lower stairs. On another night, from an empty room in the old tower, she sees Miles on the moonlit lawn looking up at something above her, and he later explains that he went out, by arrangement with Flora, so she would think him bad. She tells Mrs. Grose that the children secretly meet the dead pair, yet refuses to write to their uncle, and a tense month passes in which no one speaks the names of the dead.

   Why it mattersWith no new sightings, the governess reads the children’s charm and silence as proof of a secret, while the same behavior could belong to ordinary clever children.

6. 6

   Miles Makes His Move

   On the way to church, Miles asks when he will go back to school and says he will get his uncle to come down. The governess does not follow him inside and returns to the house meaning to leave Bly, but in the schoolroom she sees a figure she takes for Miss Jessel sitting at her table, and she decides to stay. That night, as she begs Miles to let her help him, she feels a blast of frozen air, Miles shrieks, and the candle goes out.

   Why it mattersMiles says he blew out the candle himself, while the governess notes the window was shut, so the scene can be read either way.

7. 7

   Flora at the Lake

   While Miles plays the piano for the governess, Flora slips away, and the governess and Mrs. Grose find her on the far side of the lake. When the governess cries that Miss Jessel is standing on the opposite bank, Mrs. Grose sees nothing, and Flora denies seeing anything and begs to be taken away from the governess. The next morning Mrs. Grose, shaken by what Flora has been saying, agrees to take the feverish girl to her uncle, and reveals that the governess’s letter to him vanished from the hall table.

   Why it mattersThe lake scene is the strongest case against the governess, since two witnesses see nothing, yet Mrs. Grose’s ‘I believe’ the next morning gives the other reading fresh support.

8. 8

   Alone with Miles

   After Mrs. Grose and Flora leave, the governess dines alone with Miles and presses him to tell her what is on his mind. As she asks about the letter, she sees what she describes as Quint’s white face at the window and keeps Miles’s back to it, and he admits he took and burned the letter and was sent away from school for saying things. When she cries out at the window again, Miles guesses Miss Jessel, then names Peter Quint, looks, and sees nothing; she catches him as he cries out, and his heart has stopped.

   Why it mattersJames never says what killed Miles, leaving readers to decide whether he was lost to Quint, freed from him, or broken by the governess’s pressure.

Characters and how they connect

Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them

Themes in The Turn of the Screw what the novel is really about

Symbols & motifs

Important quotes

The ending of The Turn of the Screw, explained

The Turn of the Screw ends in the dining room at Bly, with the governess and Miles alone. Mrs. Grose has taken Flora to her uncle in London, and the governess has stayed to win a confession from the boy. Miles admits that he took her letter and burned it, and that he was sent away from school for saying things to a few people he liked. As they talk, the governess sees Peter Quint’s white face at the window. When she cries out at it, Miles asks whether Miss Jessel is there, then names Peter Quint and demands to know where he is. He turns, sees only the quiet day, gives a cry, and she catches him. His heart has stopped. The book ends there, without returning to Douglas and the Christmas guests, so no one comments on what has happened. Readers have argued ever since about what this means. In one reading, the ghosts are real: Quint has come to claim the boy, and the governess wins his soul at the cost of his life. Mrs. Grose’s recognition of Quint from a description, and Miles’s use of the name, support this view. In another reading, made famous by the critic Edmund Wilson in the 1930s, the figures come from the governess’s own mind. Only she ever reports seeing them, Mrs. Grose and Flora see nothing at the lake, and Miles looks and finds the window empty. On this reading, her relentless questioning frightens a feverish child to death. Many readers now argue that James built the story so that neither reading can win. The governess herself feels the doubt: moments before the end, she is struck by the possibility that Miles is innocent and wonders what that would make her.

Common misreadings

Test yourself

Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know

A young woman takes a job looking after two orphaned children, Miles and Flora, at a big country house called Bly. Their uncle, who hired her, tells her never to bother him with problems. Soon she starts seeing a strange man and a strange woman around the house, and the housekeeper helps her work out that they match two people who used to live there and have died. The young woman becomes sure these ghosts want the children, but nobody else ever says they see them. She keeps pushing the children to admit the truth, and things get worse and worse. At the end, something terrible happens to Miles. Readers still argue about whether the ghosts were real or only in her mind.

Compare & connect the story universe

Adaptations. The Innocents (1961, Film directed by Jack Clayton), The Turn of the Screw (1954, Opera by Benjamin Britten).

Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper

Key questions students ask

• Are the ghosts real in The Turn of the Screw
• What happens to Miles at the end of The Turn of the Screw
• Why was Miles expelled from school in The Turn of the Screw
• Who are Peter Quint and Miss Jessel
• What does the title The Turn of the Screw mean
• Why does The Turn of the Screw begin with a frame story